System and Method for Broadcasting Packetized Voice Messages

ABSTRACT

A particular method includes initiating outbound calls associated with at least two recipients that are to receive a notification message. The outbound calls include a first call to a first telephone address associated with a first recipient of the at least two recipients. The method further includes, in response to a determination that the first call is unanswered, initiating a second call to a second telephone address associated with the first recipient and initiating generation of an email message to an electronic mail address associated with the first recipient.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of, and claims priority from, U.S.patent application Ser. No. 10/774,057, filed Feb. 6, 2004 and entitled“SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR BROADCASTING PACKETIZED VOICE MESSAGES,” which ishereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to notification services, andmore specifically to a system and method for broadcasting packetizedvoice messages.

BACKGROUND

Depending on implementation details, a notification service mayeffectively provide a subscriber or group of subscribers with timelyinformation. One relatively well-known notification service wasoriginally referred to as the Emergency Broadcast System (EBS). The EBSwas designed to inform the public of emergency situations and to makeuse of a broadcasting syndicate that included Amplitude Modulation (AM)radio, Frequency Modulation (FM) radio, and Television (TV) broadcaststations.

In recent years, the Emergency Alert System (EAS) has effectivelyreplaced the EBS. In addition to the broadcasting organizationsmentioned above, the EAS also includes cable companies providingbroadcast video services. Participation in national EAS alerts ismandatory for these broadcasting entities. Participation in state andlocal area EAS alerts is voluntary.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration,elements illustrated in the Figures have not necessarily been drawn toscale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements areexaggerated relative to other elements. Embodiments incorporatingteachings of the present disclosure are shown and described with respectto the drawings presented herein, in which:

FIG. 1 presents a flow diagram for a message notification processincorporating teachings of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of a network implemented messaging systemthat incorporates teachings of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments discussed below describe, in part, the broadcasting of Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) messages. From a high level, VoIPtechnology relates to a set of facilities for managing the delivery ofvoice information using the Internet Protocol (IP). Delivery of voiceinformation using IP involves sending audio information in discretepackets rather than sending the information across the more traditionalcircuit-committed protocols of the public switched telephone network(PSTN). Though many of the embodiments discussed below focus on VoIPtechnology, other packetized call techniques may be used.

An example technique incorporating teachings of the present disclosuremay include receiving a signal that indicates a message should bedelivered to a plurality of recipients. In response, contact informationfor the plurality of recipients may be identified, and an outboundpacketized call to each of the recipients may be launched. In practice,the packetized call may be in a VoIP form or some other appropriatepacketized form. If a call is answered, the call may be connected to amulticast server capable of playing the to-be-delivered message, whichmay be saved in a playable file format like .WAV, MP3, .MIDI, .AU,.AIFF, and/or some other format.

By employing the teachings disclosed herein, an operator may be able tomake use of VoIP-like technology to implement a network-based messagebroadcasting system. The network may include a PSTN, a cable network,the Public Internet, a managed IP network, and/or some other networkcapable of supporting the packet-based communication of information. Thesolution may allow, in some embodiments, for a large scale broadcast ofVoIP communication to a large number of VoIP subscribers. Thesubscribers could be targeted for a variety of reasons includinggeography, demographics, association with a particular group, entity,and/or cause, or some other suitable reason.

A system like the one depicted in FIG. 2 may allow for a pre-recordedmessage to be sent via VoIP to alert, notify, and/or inform a set ofrecipients in a timely manner. The system may recognize that a reason tobroadcast exists and set up a large number of calls at a local VoIPswitch. When an individual call is answered, the call may be“handed-off” to an IP multicast server for playing of the pre-recordedmessage. If no connection is made, the call attempt may be terminated.Such a solution may allow the PSTN to support broadcasting and toovercome some of the capacity and cost challenges typically associatedwith circuit switched networks.

As mentioned above, FIG. 1 presents a flow diagram for a messagenotification process 10 incorporating teachings of the presentdisclosure. At step 12, an administrator may establish a contact list.The list may be compiled from a larger list of available subscribers.The available subscribers may be those with VoIP services, allsubscribers without regard to service type, and/or some combination ofsupported subscribers. Once created, a call list may be associated witha triggering event and an appropriate pre-recorded message.

In some systems, an administrator may be able to remotely establish thecall list. For example, an administrator may be presented with agraphical user interface (GUI) at a remote location. The administratormay interact with the GUI to effectuate the creation or modification ofone or more call lists and their respective triggers and messages.

Once a list has been established, a network interface or platform mayrecognize, at step 14, that the triggering event has occurred. Forexample, an incoming signal may indicate that an emergency situationexists and that the call list needs to be notified of the situation. Inone embodiment, process 10 may operate in connection with the EAS. Assuch, a system executing process 10 may include EAS equipment and“understand” EAS-related protocol.

Generally speaking, EAS equipment used by broadcast stations and cablesystems may send and receive messages using a format called the EASprotocol. A typical EAS message has four parts: (1) digital headercodes; (2) a two-tone attention signal; (3) an audio and/or videomessage; (4) and an End of Message code. The header codes may define thenature of the event or emergency (event codes), the location of theemergency (location codes), the party that originated the emergencymessage (originator codes), and the valid time period of the message(time codes).

The two-tone attention signal, which may be transmitted for eightseconds, provides an audio alert to audiences that emergency informationis about to be sent. In systems with specialized Customer PremisesEquipment (CPE), such an attention signal may be communicated as aspecialized ring tone.

Another emergency protocol that may be recognized by a system executingprocess 10 is the NOAA Weather Radio (“NWR”) Specific Area MessageEncoding (SAME) technique, which NWR uses to transmit messages over NWRtransmitters around the country. Example codes for various type ofemergency situations are listed below in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Emergency Type Code Avalanche Warning AVW Avalanche Watch AVAChild Abduction Emergency CAE Civil Danger Warning CDW Coastal FloodWarning CFW Coastal Flood Watch CFA Dust Storm Warning DSW EarthquakeWarning EQW Fire Warning FRW Hazardous Materials Warning HMW LawEnforcement Warning LEW Local Area Emergency LAE Network MessageNotification NMN 911 Telephone Outage Emergency TOE Nuclear Power PlantWarning NUW Radiological Hazard Warning RHW Shelter in Place Warning SPWSpecial Marine Warning SMW Tropical Storm Warning TRW Tropical StormWatch TRA Volcano Warning VOW

Other triggering situation may involve a Missing Child Statement (MIS)event code, which may to be used in connection with local, state, andregional AMBER Plans. As mentioned above, triggering event codes mayinclude a location code in addition to an event code. An entire calllist may not need to be notified in situations where the event islimited to a specific location. Location codes may include a six-digitnumerical code that indicates what geographic area may be affected by anemergency. These codes may have three separate parts. The “SS” portionof the location code may be a two-digit number that identifies the stateor territory in which the emergency is located. The “CCC” portion of thelocation code may be a three-digit number that identifies the county orcity affected by the emergency. The “P” portion of the location code maybe an optional portion that allows the message originator to divide thearea identified in the “CCC” portion into multiple sections to furtherpinpoint the affected area. The “SS” and “CCC” portion may includeunique Federal Information Processing Standard numbers assigned by theNational Institute of Standards and Technology.

Whatever format a triggering event notification takes, process 10 mayadvance to step 16 and an intended audience may be identified. Theaudience may be all or part of the call list or supported subscribers.At step 18, the message associated with the call list may be madeavailable to an IP multicast server and contact information associatedwith the call list may be made available to a VoIP switch. The contactinformation may include individual VoIP telephone numbers for listedparties. It may also include other forms of contact information for oneor more of the listed parties, such as an electronic mail address, aPlain Old Telephony Service telephone number, an Instant Messagingaddress, a Short Messaging Service address, an Enhanced MessagingService address, a Multimedia Messaging Service address, and a wirelesstelephone number. Some of the other forms of contact information may bepassed to a different device for message delivery. For example, asubscriber may have a VoIP telephone number, a wireless telephonenumber, and an email address. The VoIP telephone number may be passed tothe VoIP switch. The wireless telephone number may be passed to awireless service provider, and the email address may be passed to anSMTP server, for alternative delivery of an appropriate message.

At step 20, the VoIP switch may initiate simultaneous outbound callsacross multiple connections. A given switch may be capable of supportinghundreds of simultaneous connections, and the switch may make use of allor some significant percentage of this capacity when beginning themessage broadcasting process. At step 22, the type of CPE being calledmay be determined. If the CPE supports advanced functionality likespecialized incoming call notification features, process 10 may advanceto step 24. At step 24, a signal may be communicated to the specializedCPE directing a specialized announcement, and the process may advance tostep 26. The specialized announcement may be similar to the EASemergency tone, it may be a spoken message explaining that the incomingcall is associated with the broadcast notification service, and/or someother special “ring tone.”

If it is determined at step 22 that the called CPE does not have theappropriate advanced feature set, process 10 may skip to step 26. Atstep 26, a system implementing process 10 may determine if the call hasbeen answered. If answered, the call may be connected to the IPmulticast server at step 28. At step 30, the pre-recorded message may beplayed to the party answering the call, and at step 32 the call may beterminated. Step 32 may also involve indicating in an appropriatelocation that the message was successfully delivered to party answeringthe call.

If at step 26 the call was not answered, process 10 may advance to step34. At step 34, the system implementing process 10 may retry the call.The retry may occur immediately, after some time interval has passed, ata random time, and/or in accordance with a suggested call time output bya call scheduler. At step 36, a system may determine if the retry callwas answered. If it was answered, process 10 may loop back to step 28,and the call may be treated accordingly. If the retry again goesunanswered, process 10 may advance to step 38, where it may bedetermined to stop retrying the call. If there should be no more retryattempts, process 10 may advance to step 32 and the call attempts may beterminated. If the call should be retried, process 10 may loop back tostep 34 and treated accordingly.

As mentioned above, FIG. 2 shows one embodiment of a network implementedmessaging system 40 that incorporates teachings of the presentdisclosure. As depicted, system 40 includes a communication network 42,which may include the PSTN, a cable network, a wireless service providernetwork, and/or some other network capable of supporting thecommunication of packetized information. Network 42 may becommunicatively coupled to other networks like Public Internet 44 andcellular network 46.

In some embodiments, network 42 may provide telecommunication servicesto several subscribers. As shown, network 42 is communicatively coupledto premises 48, 50, and 52. Each of these premises has a least onetelephone station identified as telephones 54, 56, and 58, respectively.These telephones may be capable of VoIP communications and thesubscribers associated with each of these telephones may subscribe to aVoIP service offered by of the operator of network 42.

In addition to the depicted VoIP telephones, a given subscriber may haveother electronic devices capable of receiving messages. For example, thesubscriber associated with premises 48 may have a computer 60 and awireless communication device 62 capable of communicating with a node 64of cellular network 46. Wireless communication device 62 may be capableof Radio Frequency communication 66 that employs a 2.5G mobiletechnology like GPRS or EDGE. Device 62 may also employ higher bandwidthofferings like 3G/UMTS.

In operation, system 40 may rely on a memory 68 maintaining contactinformation for a collection of subscribers to be notified in responseto a given notification signal. The collection of subscribers mayinclude the subscribers residing at premises 48, 50, and 52, and thecontact information may include Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP)telephone numbers for each of the subscribers. Memory 68 and/or someother storage location may include a notify list 70 that includes thecollection of subscribers to be notified in response to a specificnotification signal and an additional list 72 containing a secondcollection of subscribers to be notified in response to a secondspecific notification signal.

In practice, the lists could be implemented as a single list with anotification field. The notification field may indicate that a givensubscriber should be effectively included on more than one specificnotification list. For example, the subscriber associated with premises48 may want and/or need to be notified in response to three differentnotification signals. The notification field of the list including thesubscriber may have one or more flags indicating that the subscribershould be notified in response to receipt of any or all of the threenotification signals.

Within system 40, a notification signal may be received via a networkinterface 74. The signal may be passed to a computing platform 76, whichmay be implemented as one or more servers, computing devices, engines,mechanisms, and/or some other combination of hardware, software, andfirmware. In some embodiments, computing platform 76, memory 68, andinterface 74 may be associated with a VoIP messaging center 77.

In operation, network interface 74 may receive a notification signal andoutput a trigger signal. A VoIP switch 78 may be responsive to thetrigger signal and may be capable of supporting a plurality ofsimultaneous connections with remote premises. As such, VoIP switch 78may be able to initiate outbound VoIP calls to a plurality ofsubscribers. Platform 76 may also include a call answered mechanism 80,which may be capable of recognizing that a subscriber associated withpremises 50 has answered a given VoIP call placed to that subscriber. Inresponse to this recognition, the call to that subscriber may be passedto an Internet Protocol (IP) multicast server 82. Server 82 may takeover the VoIP call and deliver a message to the subscriber during thecall.

The to-be-delivered message may have been pre-recorded and associatedwith a given notification signal and/or notify list. For example, thesubscriber associated with premises 50 may want and/or need to benotified in response to a given notification signal. The notificationsignal may have been received by network interface 74 and the subscribermay have been called as a result. A pre-recorded message associated withthe notification signal may now be played to the subscriber.

In some embodiments, a component of system 40 may recognize that a givencall went unanswered. For example, disposition engine 84 may “know” thatthe subscriber at premises 48 did not answer the call. Dispositionengine 84 may request one or more retry calls to telephone 54.Disposition engine 84 may also “know” that the subscriber has a wirelesscommunication device 62 and may request delivery of the message todevice 62. Disposition engine 84 may also recognize that the subscriberhas an email account accessible via dial-up, some “always-on” broadbandconnection, and/or some other data connection. As such, dispositionengine 84 may request an alternative connection engine 86 to compose anemail message, to attach a file representing the pre-recorded message tothe email message, and to output the email message for delivery to theemail account.

Though the above described embodiment employs engines, mechanisms, andservers, to implement the features and functions of a VoIP messagebroadcasting service, other implementations and embodiments could beemployed without departing form the teachings of the present disclosure.For example, many of the operations may be implemented by computingplatform 76. Computing platform 76 may have access to a computerreadable medium holding computer-readable data capable of directingplatform 76 and related devices to maintain a call list comprising Voiceover Internet Protocol (VoIP) numbers, to recognize an event triggersignaling a request to place a VoIP call to each VoIP number on the calllist, to direct a VoIP switch to begin placing VoIP calls to each VoIPnumber on the call list, to direct the VoIP switch to connect answeredcalls to an Internet Protocol (IP) multicast server, and to direct theIP multicast server to play a message.

In preferred embodiments, messaging center 77 may support and processmultiple notification signals and multiple notify lists. To facilitatecreation of notify lists, system 40 may include an administratorinterface 88. Interface 88 may allow for local and/or remote creationand modification of notify lists. For example, an administrator mayaccess interface 88 and create a new notify list. With the help ofinterface 88, the administrator may access a subscriber database tocreate the new list, which may be little more than a list of VoIPtelephone numbers. The administrator may then link and/or associate thelist with a given notification signal and a given message file. Theadministrator may then “approve” the list for live operation—such thatif the associated notification signal is received, messaging center 77will begin attempting VoIP telephone calls to the listed numbers, andanswered calls will be forwarded to an IP multicast server for playingof the associated message.

The administrator function may, in some cases, be automated such thatnew notify lists may be created automatically and/or in near real time.This automation option may allow for the creation of notify lists whenneeded. If an emergency situation arises in a given area, a notify listincluding residents in that area may be created and a message similar toa “standard” EAS message may be played in connection with answeredcalls.

In various embodiments, the telephones, computers, devices, servers,and/or platforms, described above, may take forms including wireless andcordless phones, personal digital assistants, cellular telephones,mobile telephones, laptop computers, desktop computers, mainframes, PSTNswitches, Ethernet switches, routers, gateways, hardware, firmware,software, work stations, other options having some level of computingcapability, and/or a combination thereof.

The methods and systems described herein provide for an adaptableimplementation. Although certain embodiments have been described usingspecific examples, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art thatthe disclosure is not limited to these few examples. Note also, thatalthough certain illustrative embodiments have been shown and describedin detail herein, along with certain variants thereof, many other variedembodiments may be constructed by those skilled in the art.

The benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any element(s) thatmay cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become morepronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essentialfeature or element of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the presentdisclosure is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forthherein, but on the contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives,modifications, and equivalents, as can be reasonably included within thescope of the claims below.

1. A method comprising: initiating outbound calls associated with atleast two recipients that are to receive a notification message, whereinthe outbound calls include a first call to a first telephone addressassociated with a first recipient of the at least two recipients; and inresponse to a determination that the first call is unanswered:initiating a second call to a second telephone address included incontact information associated with the first recipient; andconcurrently initiating generation of an email message to an electronicmail address associated with the first recipient.
 2. The method of claim1, wherein the outbound calls are initiated simultaneously, and whereinthe outbound calls comprise voice over internet protocol calls.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, further comprising delivering notification messagesduring the first call responsive to a determination that the first callis answered.
 4. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving anevent trigger to initiate the outbound calls, wherein the event triggeris associated with the notification message and is associated withidentification of the at least two recipients.
 5. The method of claim 4,further comprising identifying the at least two recipients andidentifying the notification message based on the event trigger.
 6. Themethod of claim 4, wherein the event trigger includes a location code,an emergency type code, and a notification message identifier.
 7. Anotification system comprising: a switch operable to: support aplurality of simultaneous connections associated with a plurality ofrecipients; and initiate a first call to a first telephone addressassociated with a first recipient of the plurality of recipients thatare to receive a notification message, wherein the first call isprovided via one of the plurality of simultaneous connections; anotification mechanism operable to determine whether the first call isanswered; and a call log engine operable to, when the notificationmechanism determines that the first call is unanswered: initiate asecond call to a second telephone address associated with the firstrecipient; and concurrently initiate generation of an email message toan electronic mail address associated with the first recipient.
 8. Thenotification system of claim 7, wherein the switch comprises a voiceover Internet protocol switch.
 9. The notification system of claim 7,further comprising: a network interface operable to: receive a firstnotification signal; and provide a trigger signal to the switch based onthe first notification signal, wherein the first call is initiated basedat least in part on the trigger signal.
 10. The notification system ofclaim 7, wherein the first notification signal is formatted according toan emergency alert system protocol.
 11. The notification system of claim7, wherein the call log engine is further operable to track a metricassociated with delivery of the notification message to the firstrecipient.
 12. The notification system of claim 7, wherein the switch isfurther operable to: determine a device type of a recipient deviceassociated with the first telephone address; determine, based on thedevice type, whether the recipient device is configured to receive andplay a specialized ring tone; and initiate the first call including thespecialized ring tone to the first telephone address responsive todetermining that the recipient device is configured to receive and playthe specialized ring tone.
 13. The notification system of claim 7,wherein the switch includes a simultaneous connections limit, andwherein the switch is further operable to initiate calls to theplurality of recipients via the plurality of simultaneous connections,wherein the plurality of simultaneous connections comprises at leastseventy-five percent of the simultaneous connections limit.
 14. Anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructionsthat, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: initiateoutbound calls associated with at least two recipients that areidentified to receive a notification message, wherein the outbound callsinclude a first call to a first telephone address associated with afirst recipient of the at least two recipients; and in response to adetermination that the first call is unanswered: initiate a second callto a second telephone address included in contact information associatedwith the first recipient; and concurrently initiate generation of anemail message to an electronic mail address associated with the firstrecipient.
 15. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium ofclaim 14, further comprising instructions that, when executed by theprocessor, cause the processor to receive an event trigger identifyingthe notification message and including an indication of a time periodwhen the notification message is valid.
 16. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the firsttelephone address is different from the second telephone address. 17.The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14, whereinthe first telephone address comprises a first voice over internettelephone number, and wherein the second telephone address comprises asecond voice over internet telephone number.
 18. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 14, wherein the second call isinitiated after expiration of a time interval subsequent to determiningwhether the first call is answered, wherein the time interval israndomly selected.
 19. The non-transitory computer-readable storagemedium of claim 14, further comprising instructions that, when executedby the processor, cause the processor to generate the email message,wherein the generated email message includes the notification message.20. The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 14,further comprising instructions that, when executed by the processor,cause the processor to, in response to the determination that the firstcall is unanswered, place one or more additional calls to the firsttelephone address prior to initiating the second call to the secondtelephone address.